Study Abroad

by Gianmarco Zuccaroli

When Stacie kindly asked me to write about my experience abroad, I found myself assembling, piece by piece, the fragments of these past few years, and among the few certainties that emerged, one stood out: barely anything went according to plan. I was born in Roma, a city that wears its majestic history as a beloved coat: rich, timeless, impossibly elegant, and woven with layers of meaning. After five high school years of sustained pressure and deep intellectual immersions between the humanities and economics, I had been preparing to study Economics at LUISS, which was solid and prestigious, but also comfortable. Everything was lined up in my head, and I was not supposed to leave Italy. Looking back, I know now that lifeis not a perfect line, it meanders, writing our stories in detours, not destinations, so that the most important decisions are often the ones we almostdo not take. Which was quite shocking at the time for someone as reflective as me. Today I can affirm tha the most meaningful turning points and the greatest strokes of luck often emerge from what first feels like a moment of despair.

That is exactly how I felt in September 2021: admitted to my dream university, yet missing the very high full merit scholarship threshold by half a point. After a moment of difficult disorientation, that same evening I decided I would turn that disappointment into momentum, pivoting toward opportunity. This allowed me to remember another institution I had once looked into and that I had already imagined as my future Erasmus destination: Sciences Po Paris, the temple of French political elites. I had never been in Paris nor in France atthat time, but I always had a fascination for that country, which I felt so close to mine yet so different in many little aspects, foreign yet familiar. Suddenly, that seedbloomed into a possible plan.

Several months preparing my essays and one rigorous interview later, I received the long-coveted offer. And I took it, heartpounding: thatafternoon I decided to pack that coatand move to Paris. It looked like Sciences Po was perfect for me, a vibrant blend of politics and economics, a place where minds sparked. On paper, it offered everything I aimed for: a space for critical thinking and meaningful debate, the sharpness of intellectual rigor, and a vibrant community of stimulatingminds, thekind of people who challenge you simply by being around. In practice, it was both more and less than that. I found stimulation in some classes, yes, but also disillusionment: most courses felt abstract, quite disconnected from the pulse of the real world,and the French academic system proved, in many ways, a deep disappointment.

As I gradually drifted away from pure politics, I came to understand that my truehome was Economics, which I chose as my major, delving deep into Macroeconomics andEconometrics while immersing myself in coding with R throughout my second year.I missed Roma but also cherished my Parisian life, whilst feeling increasinglylonely at Sciences Po, like a foreign body in an ecosystem shaped for differentpeople and other kinds of ambitions: I was falling in love with Finance and Sciences Po was not built for that kind ofaffair.

I remember how many doubts filled my mind whilst rewriting my goals in the margins of a lecture notebook, drawing arrows between incompatible futures, as well as questioning the shape of my own aspirations. I had always spent hours reflecting about the world, but it was time to think about my place in it: I yearned for something more demanding, a space where complexity was not only studied but experienced, and where I could challenge myself beyond theory, with stakes that feltreal. I realized that the mandatory third year abroad could become an opportunity to come back home more grounded, joining a university more attuned to my evolving aspirations. That is why I applied to Bocconi, where I had the chance to spend the past year, not driven by wanderlust, but by a hunger, as I needed a place that valued a different kind of learning and, by extension, took seriously students like me who could feel somehow alienated in the French academic world.

What I found exceeded every expectation. Bocconi does not charm us with soft words but sharpens us thanks to the contact with repeated practitioners aiming to convey not only skills but also a passion. There is a certain poetry in being held to high standards that value brilliant, lateral critical thinking rather than mere compliance with formalities. When expectations are rigorous, your own voice sharpens in response, honing precision and intellectual stamina. The ecosystem made it possible — and thrilling! —and this profoundly challenged my analytical sharpness as well as my ability to defend aconviction.

Studying abroad is often romanticized, but the truth is that it is the experience closest to living an adventure game, which stretches you in ways no classroom ever will: it is not about how many kilometers you travel, but how far you let yourself be changed. As my own experiences shows, it requires being ready and willing to embrace change, accepting that things may not go according to plan, and yet discovering that these detours might be our greatest opportunities. Do not expect clarity from day one, but to feel out of place: it is precisely in those moments of discomfort, when you feel misunderstood or struggle to understand the others, where the growth takes place.

Beyondthis, Idiscovered another form of fluency: adaptability. I learned to belong without completely blending in, preserving the edges that define who I am: I stayed curious even when tired, I accepted hardship and unease, and endeavored never to stop before an apparent barrier, transcending my own perceived limits. Language evolves as well, beyond grammar and vocabulary, embodying survival and connection, a cause for laughter, yet sometimes a reason to fall silent. Those lessons did not come with a grade, but they might still matter more than any GPA.

As mentioned earlier, I will not pretend everything was linear: Sciences Po often fell short of the expectations I had placed on it, yet paradoxically, those frustrations clarified my goals more than any smooth path would probably have. The year at Bocconi restored a sense of alignment: it reminded me of the ambition that brought me to Paris and gave me back the academic desire that had gotten partly lost during my second year in France.

I am now happily back in the French capital, resuming my life between Roma and Paris, with firmer footing, clearer goals, and a new horizon: I am thrilled to be enrolled this September in the Master’s in Finance at Université Paris Dauphine, a highly selective program that will allow me to refine the technical skills I have developed over three years of questioning everything in ways I could not have anticipated back in 2022. Though already admitted to Sciences Po’s Finance et Stratégie track, I chose to take a different path once again, driven by the same curiosity and ambition that sparked my journey and still keeps pushing me to seek the best intellectual fit for who I am becoming.

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Gianmarco Zuccaroli is a 22-year-old Italian from Rome studying Finance in Paris. Passionate about macroeconomics, politics, languages, technologies and writing, his journey has led him to explore both Italian and French cultures, driven by te belief that economics is not just a tool to read the world but also a way to rethink it.